Stop Hiring Social Media Teams That Quiet Quit on Day One
Hiring an in-house social media team feels like the grown-up move for an agency. You get people on-site, on Slack, on your time. On paper, it looks cheaper and more controlled than paying another supplier.
In real life, it hits you where it hurts. You try to build the team right as Q1 targets are biting, budgets are tight, and everyone is already maxed out. That shiny new social hire spends their first month stuck in onboarding, waiting on brand guidelines, chasing approvals, then slowly realising their job is half admin and half being pulled into random pitch decks.
On a spreadsheet, in-house looks neat. In practice, it is slow, fragile, and always behind the platforms, the formats, and the culture. By the time you all agree on a trend, it is already old.
There is another path: a flat-fee, done-for-you social content engine that runs in the background while your team wins work. No extra headcount, no HR drama, no endless “can you just tweak this post again?” messages at 9pm.
The In-House Social Dream That Eats Your Margins Alive
Agencies love to talk about margin, but many do not add up the real cost of “just hiring someone for social”.
The cost stack is bigger than one salary. You are paying for:
Salary, National Insurance and benefits
Software for design, scheduling and storage
Hardware and licences
Training, conferences and “keeping them inspired”
Freelancers or designers to fill gaps when they get swamped
Then add the hidden bit no one budgets for: leadership time. Creative directors, founders and account leads getting dragged into reviewing copy, layouts and calendars instead of winning clients. Every “quick review” is another half hour gone.
There is also the utilisation myth. You think, “We will have them 100 percent on our own marketing.” That lasts about two weeks. Then a client needs a TikTok, a pitch needs a social slide, a deck needs polishing, and your social hire becomes the agency handy-person. Your agency channels slide back to “we will post after this pitch”.
On top of that, churn hurts. Many social roles skew junior. The job is fast, reactive and often thankless. People burn out, move on, or get poached. When they leave, they take all that brand understanding and workflow knowledge with them. You are back to recruitment, interviews, onboarding and more lost months, right when your pipeline is warming up and you actually need to look loud and alive online.
Why Agencies Are Terrible at Doing Their Own Social
Agencies sell “always-on” to clients, then post once a month for themselves. A new office photo, a hire announcement, the odd award. That is not a strategy, that is housekeeping.
The problem is not talent, it is structure. Agency social gets stuck in:
Internal politics about who owns the brand
Creative ego, with everyone wanting to “make it bigger”
Endless sign-offs across strategy, creative and new business
“We will post after the pitch” thinking that kills momentum
By the time everyone agrees, the post is bland or late or both. The work you push to clients looks sharp and modern, but your own grid and feed are half-asleep.
This creates a quiet credibility gap. Progressive clients, top talent and potential partners often look you up on LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok before they reply to your email. If they see a dead feed, random posts, or the same award graphic three times in a row, they will not say anything. They will just assume you are behind, or too busy to care about your own brand.
In London, where everyone is fighting the same grey skies and the same new business lists, that silent judgement matters. People want to work with agencies that look awake.
The Subscription Model That Outruns Legacy Agencies
Old-school social retainers move slowly. Long onboarding. Thick decks. Time sheets. Change requests. Surprise fees. By the time the first post goes live, everyone is tired.
A flat-fee content subscription flips that. You know exactly what you are getting each month, for example 20 posts across your key channels, delivered like clockwork.
Here is how a challenger setup works:
Strategy is built once, properly, then refined as data rolls in
Design and copy are created as a batch, not one chaotic post at a time
Scheduling is handled for you, so posts go live even when you are buried in pitches
Feedback loops are tight and focused, not endless committee reviews
You start to act less like a cautious, traditional agency and more like a lean product company. You ship ideas fast. You test formats. You let your social channels prove your relevance every week, instead of hoping a single award entry will carry your reputation all year.
For agencies serious about social media for agencies, this rhythm is the difference between “we should post more” and actually showing up.
Make Social Media Your Agency’s Fastest Asset, Not Its Slowest
Social should not be the thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the list every time the weather turns grim and pitch season kicks off. It should be the channel that reacts quickest.
With a subscription partner handling agency social, you can:
Jump on cultural moments without scrambling your creative team
Plan around awards season so wins and shortlists get turned into content quickly
Ride new year’s budget chats with sharp, consistent posts that back up your outreach
The real magic is compounding. One post is nothing. Months of steady posting become a body of proof: hot takes, case story threads, behind-the-scenes shots, culture cues. Your new business team can pull these into creds decks, outreach emails and proposal slides.
Instead of trying to explain that you are modern, curious and fast, you can show it in seconds. People scroll, they get the message, they qualify you in.
You also reduce risk. Instead of betting on one hire, or a tiny in-house “team” that collapses every busy season, you tap into a system built to keep going when your world gets messy. Big client lands? Massive pitch week? Half the agency off sick? Your feed does not care, it still goes out.
Ditch the In-House Fantasy and Turn on a Social Engine
At some point, agency leaders have to make a clear call. Either keep chasing the in-house social dream that falls apart every time work gets hectic, or admit you need an external engine focused only on making your agency brand loud online.
If you want a quick reality check, do two things:
Audit your last 90 days of posts and ask, “Is this the standard we sell to clients?”
Work out roughly what that output cost in salary and leadership time
Then compare that to what a flat-fee, 20-post subscription could deliver if it actually showed up, every month, without tapping your creative floor or dragging your C-suite into copy comments.
At Kraken, here in London, we built our model for agencies that are tired of their own marketing being the worst work they put in the world. Social media for agencies should be sharp, regular and ruthless about time. Not another internal headache, and not another hire you quietly regret.
Transform Your Agency’s Social Media Results Today
If you are ready to streamline delivery, improve client outcomes and reclaim your team’s time, we are here to help. Our specialists focus on social media for agencies that need a reliable, structured and measurable approach. Share a little about your goals and challenges and we will outline a practical, tailored way forward. Partner with Kraken and start building more consistent, scalable campaigns for every client.
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